I don’t think we should mention, let alone compare, come day-go-day administrators( or whatever moniker they have acquired ),or the clueless pallid politicos that try to pathetically cover the embarrassment of their humiliating exit, with the talented Maureen Lipman.

The judgement was a stinging indictment of the way Dr Khan was treated.
The ponderous delays that followed the summary suspension, I suspect led to problems with the delivery of the service, though the only one to be publiscised was the driving licence certification delays for diabetic vehicle drivers - which must have caused a lot of inconvenience and worry.Unless I missed it, there seemed remarkably little mention on Manx Radio News about the court judgement.
The result , however was humiliating for the Department and will cost them/us 36 K.
Wielding power and authority is not a subsitute for leadership and managerial skill.

Yes, - but I think we all know that is not going to happen!
I suspect that the NHS management system’s worst punishment of “one of their own”, is “lateral promotion” -where someone is edged sideways into another post.They cannot be”offered” a post at a lower rate of remuneration, I am told.
Where such a post does not exist, a new job and title is created into which they are quietly eased, though their colleagues might be surpised that they weren’t able to spot the job being advertised.

Yes!
And the sea and the tides? well, the ice walls are like the edges of the world which is like a really, really big tea tray with water in it and naturally it tilts and the tides move to one side and the water bounces off and comes back an everything tilts the other way then the tides move , - back an forth it goes on forever and ever and ever -“perpetual motion”is what a really top scientist called it but he has been locked up because no-one is allowed to know that.

This flat earth thingy ..
After much reflection, this idea suddenly seems really convincing, (like even sound , like well-sound in fact)
So I’m up for it for it ..
The world is Flat!
No ifs or buts now .. it is definitely flat- as in not round or spherical and that
- it is .........Flat, OK?
Well, It stands to reason, does’t it?
Don’t argue with me, pal!
I am one of your like ,actual “converts” ,here.
I am in like total awe of the wonderful U -tube experts and the flat-earthers who have spoken so eloquently and convinvincely.
How could. I have been so stupid?
I have expunged out all traces of my previous education and I enthusiastically embrace this , the New, the True - and the Only Way.
Which way now , Oh ,leader?

If you put your location into Nasa’s “spot the station” you get emails alerting you to the next time the International Space Station passes over wherever you live.
Visible to to the naked eye, it scoots across the sky going from one horizon to the other in about six minutes - about 17 thousand miles an hour.Exactly on schedule, exactly in the predicted part if the sky, exactly on the predicted date. This is proof ,if any were needed for me that it is orbiting,ie going around, the earth and the earth is spinning.I accept this , indeed I am in awe and admiration for those very clever people who engineer it and the brave folk in it.
Do the flat-earthers and conspiratory theorists really think this some vast ,brilliantly elaborate hoax put on to deceive us all for some bizarre reason ?

My reference to Sat Nav was a brief way of suggesting that because it works ,there might be something ,based on sequential and cumulative results of hundreds years of scientific observation and endeavor,in the idea that we live on a ,shall we say, “not-flat” world.
Whether you feel it is round, flat or even a great big bloody doughnut, strength of your opinion counts for nothing.It is what it is , to slightly misquote Galileo.
No matter the world’s shape , it is clear that we do not all seem to live on the same one as well as not even living in the same century, so the likelihood of a Damascian moment for flat-earther to suddenly accept anything different is a vain hope.
But there do seem more people following this flat earth craze at the moment.
As one of their exponents boasted ,they have members everywhere- “they come from all four corners of the globe”

This fevered debate is way over my head but in the vain hope it might speed its merciful death, I offer the following:
Say, the following in the the manner of “Bryn”played by Rob Brydon in “Gavin and Stacey”,
”Two words -Sat -Nav”
Sat -Nav....
OK , yes, it does have a flat screen and the map is flat ..

There seems to be several areas of concern regarding consultant posts and the following,though not on based on first hand knowledge, has come in part from some conversations with medical staff:
Recruitment
- is a problem and this may be down to how the Dept goes about it.
the past record shows late and poor advertising and amateurish approach to asssesing candidates - A consultant who was on the run from the German police worked her for eight years.Managers had failed to do a basic criminal records /DBS check prior to, or even following his appointment.
Despite knowing years in advance when someone is due to retire, I was described 2 instances where a post was only advertised 2 months after the consultant had left.In the interim locum posts are advertised.Inevitably then there is an element of “panic purchase” to fill the gap.
Retainment
Despite the above, and perhaps as much by luck as good management the Service has fallen in its feet a good few times and still managed to acquire some doctors who have proved to be absolutely first class consultants.
Problems of working the UK NHS (and there undoubtly are ), have sometimes meant that we have been able acquire some excellent staff who see the Island’s Health Service as an opportunity to just do their job well.Some are attracted to the Island for a better life for their family, and there probably other reasons.
The problem is we then fail to keep them!
This seems to be the case in most specialist departments.They express dissatisfaction with the way the hospital is run and a general frustration of not being able to change anything - and just go.
Why? The reasons for this need to be explored and deficiencies addressed.
Money
The recent revelations about the size of payments and the comparison with UK are a shock.Consultant pay, outside of London is fairly uniform throughout the NHS, including extras such as seniority awards etc- so how can this be?
This may come back again to how the consultants are recruited and employed.
I will be happy and relieved to be proved wrong, but I suspect we have a system propped up on locum contracts and ( I don’t know ) some agency recruitment.
If this is so, then it is an expensive ,clumsy and inefficient way of staffing the service.Locum contracts are not way of attracting and retaining good staff .These arrangements lack any security of tenure - sometimes they can be on as little as a monthly basis. Some consultants ,I am led to believe, have been on a locum contract for several years.The purpose of locums are to temporarily and expensively fill gaps for a short time of need - not to run a service.

You could take both from -30C, but as I understand it, the point China hand was illustrating was about the heat energy required to melt Ice compared with melting the same mass of gold -and ice isn’t ice at 20 C is it ?
Starting with both at - 30 C (or whatever temp you choose below the ice melting point), more heat would certainly be needed :
My maths was never that good and my physics well rusty, but here goes :
for the gold from -30 C:
specific heat x mass = thermal capacity = 0.1299 x mass (1 Kg)
Thermal capacity x temp increase in deg C = heat energy in KJ required
So starting at - 30C , we need to add : 0.1299 x30 = 3.89 kJ
This added to the 201.7 gives a new total of 205.59 kJ
- still a lot less than the 397.2 kJ for melting the ice.
I’m getting a headache.